WORLD OUTREACH COMMITTEE

SUMMARY OF WORK

1. Supporting our global workers being sent, in transition, and on the field.

2. Establishing key organizational partnerships

3. Strengthening the WO leadership team

4. Setting up a Nominations Subcommittee to steward future leadership

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RECOMMENDATIONS

45-45 That the 45th General Assembly approve Crossworld as a Co-op Agency

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WORK OF THE COMMITTEE

Supporting Global Workers Being Sent and in Transition: This year, we continued to lean into supporting our global workers, with an emphasis on pastoral care and relational connection. To accomplish this, WO increased collaboration with sending churches and presbyteries, as well as worked to strengthen our organizational structures to support our workers. The result has seen enhanced onboarding experience, spiritual formation support, and team-building. We have also intentionally focused on supporting our global workers as they are being sent. The WO team continues to provide pastoral care and personalized coaching for those navigating transitions, whether due to relocation, role changes, reentry, or crisis. In addition to the care, regular times of intercession were held for global workers. We also began organizing around regional networks that can support future connections, gatherings, and support as workers seek to stay tethered to one another and the EPC. We remain committed to ensuring every global worker is sent well, supported fully, and sustained for long-term impact in their calling.

Establishing Organizational Partnerships: In 2025, the WOC invested in building and deepening organizational partnerships to extend our reach and multiply impact. We’ve continued investing in collaborations with like-minded organizations and mission agencies focused on church planting, theological training, diaspora ministry, and missionary care. These partnerships are being shaped by establishing a shared vision, theological alignment, and a commitment to those with minimal access to the Gospel. These partnerships are helping us steward our resources more wisely while accelerating the global reach of the Gospel. We’ll continue to seek out partners who share our passion for innovative, Spirit-led mission.

Strengthening the Leadership Team: Recognizing that healthy leadership is foundational to long-term mission effectiveness, we prioritized strengthening the World Outreach leadership team. This year included a Spirit-filled strategic process and comprehensive review of team roles, communication rhythms, and decision-making processes. We strategically added operational and mobilization leadership roles to close identified gaps and build capacity. The positive impact of these decisions is already being experienced.

WO is implementing a regional model of care and connection to best support the expanding global team. A key aspect of this work will be developing the regional leadership teams in areas like spiritual formation, pastoral care, cross-cultural competency, and overall team health. WO is pursuing ways to continue integrating spiritual rhythms into our leadership culture, prioritizing prayer, retreat, and discernment in our planning and leadership.

Setting Up a WO Nominations Subcommittee: In 2024, the WOC launched a Nominations Subcommittee to help us prayerfully identify, get to know, and recommend the next generation of committee members for World Outreach. The team was chaired by a member of WO and supported by other committee members and WO staff. We began in prayer and outlined a first draft of how the subcommittee would serve the EPC nominations process and WOC. We clarified qualifications and expectations, focusing on spiritual maturity, global vision, and cross-cultural sensitivity. A timeline was developed for vetting, including interviews, reference checks, and times of corporate prayer. We also worked alongside denominational leadership to broaden the awareness of this opportunity, intentionally reaching out to underrepresented voices with a heart for the nations. Already, this process has yielded a deeper, more intentional pipeline of candidates for future service on the WOC. We believe this subcommittee will help us steward leadership with wisdom and mission alignment for years to come.

ENGAGE 2025

In 2010, at our 30th General Assembly, the EPC launched Engage 2025, a commitment to reach the unreached, especially in the Muslim world. A goal was established for each presbytery to identify an unreached people group by the year 2025 and formalize a unified effort to aid the planting of indigenous churches where none existed among their chosen people group. In the past year, three more presbyteries made their commitments official, bringing us to 16 out of 16 presbyteries toward the 100% goal. We celebrate God’s expansive work in and through our presbyteries.

FINAL REMARKS FROM THE CHAIRMAN: WES PETERSON

As Chairman of the World Outreach Committee, I’m both grateful and hopeful as I look back on this past year and look ahead to what’s next. This has been a year of meaningful steps forward. Rooted in prayer and discernment, we’ve strengthened our leadership structure, deepened care for global workers, expanded strategic partnerships, and launched a nomination process for future committee members. These efforts reflect a clear desire: to reach those with least access to the good news of Jesus Christ. As our Executive Director, Gabriel has emphasized, global missions are shifting rapidly, becoming more urbanized, more complex, and more interconnected. Yet, in the last year, we’re not just holding ground but preparing to break new ground. Here are a few ways God has opened the door for expansion:

ITEN (International Theological Education Network):

• Deep partnerships in Central Asia led to invitations for regular theological and leadership development training across multiple cities and five additional Muslim-majority countries.
• Expansion beyond our official sites is underway, with new ministry frontiers opening rapidly.
• Two new younger couples have joined the ITEN team, strengthening our future reach.

Member Care:

• Two talented couples were added to the Member Care team to provide proactive, holistic support for our global workers.
• A new international missionary respite center was established, offering a safe place for counseling, rest, and renewal for those serving on the field.

Mobilization:

• Individuals who completed the Kairos course are actively seeking ways to pray, send, and engage in missions.
• Graduates of the 9-month Missions Cohort are volunteering with World Outreach, and some are deploying to the mission field.
• The “Connecting Mission Leaders Conference,” hosted by EPC WO, brought together mission leaders and pastors who are now collaborating to creatively mobilize prayer, sending, welcoming diaspora communities, and deploying new workers.

In the next five years, we look forward to living out the directives of the Master plan in four categories:

Empower: We will activate churches and individuals in growing missional communities to live into Great Commission practices such as praying, sending, going, welcoming (diaspora), and making disciples.

Engage: We continue the work of Engage 2025 toward the long-term vision of seeing adopted peoples reached with healthy and indigenous reproducing churches and creatively expanding our engagement of least-access people groups.

Equip: Equipping global workers and national partners is critical to building capacity, long-term sustainability, and stewardship of those the Lord has called to join in this work.

Innovate: We will participate in God’s work of reaching least-access peoples by developing new strategies and international collaboration. Through this, we can envision sustainable church planting, discipleship, and leadership development that is culturally grounded and adaptable.

In all of this, the local church remains at the heart of all we do. Through Spirit-empowered leadership, global partnerships, and strategic partnerships, we believe God will continue to use the EPC in powerful ways.

Thank you for your prayers, support, and partnership in this work.

In Christ,

Dr. Wes Peterson

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RECOMMENDATIONS (DETAILED)

RECOMMENDATION 45-45

Recommends that the 45th General Assembly approve Crossworld as a Co-op Agency.

Rationale:
As an approved Co-op agency, Crossworld would provide WO the ability to send more workers to the mission field, specifically to locations with least access to the gospel, through professional work placement options. Attaining visas as a religious worker is no longer a viable pathway to establish oneself in most countries that are void of or opposed to the gospel and the church. Crossworld helps place global workers into legitimate professional jobs in communities in need of those skills and also desperately in need of the light, love, and truth of the gospel. Crossworld has been sending workers for 90 years and has an extensive network of marketplace opportunities that help people of all kinds of vocations find their place in gospel-sharing, disciple-making, and church-planting, utilizing a professional platform.

Crossworld.org
About Crossworld
Crossworld

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COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Whitney Alexander
TE, Presbytery of the Gulf South

Susan Lear
RE, Presbytery of the Great Plains

Marcos Ortega
TE, Presbytery of the East

Waring Porter
TE, Presbytery of the Central South

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MEETING DATES

October 20-22, 2024: Hope Church (Memphis, TN)
January 9, 2025: Office of the General Assembly (Orlando, Florida)
April 3, 2025: Video Conference

Respectfully submitted,

Dr. Wes Peterson, Chairman
June 2025

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